Friday, January 27, 2012

Vikings to Metrodome? -- No Need to Be Coy, Colvin Roy

You remember how all the momentum was for the Metrodome site for the Vikings? And how it was Minneapolis, and not Ramsey County, that had the funding mechanism in place that could provide the chimerical "local contribution" that would fund a new stadium?

City Council insistence that public funding for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium must go before Minneapolis voters put the brakes on Mayor R.T. Rybak's plan for the Metrodome site Thursday.
Sandra Colvin Roy, whose stance on the mayor's stadium plan was previously unknown, became the seventh member of the 13-member council standing against the proposal absent a citywide referendum. That vote is required under the city's charter if the city spends more than $10 million on a stadium, but the mayor and council President Barb Johnson would like the Legislature to override it.

And guess who makes Colvin Roy worry about the machinations?

"Looking across the street at Occupy Minnesota and thinking about what's going on in our country right now, some of the discussions that are happening relative to government -- can we trust them or not? -- I cannot countenance going around that referendum," Colvin Roy said Thursday during a hearing.

Well, hell, let's just give Occupy a suite in the new place. That should solve the problem.

So there needs to be a referendum to secure funding in Minneapolis, too? Somewhere in his bunker in Ramsey County, Tony Bennett must have a smirk on his face about this development.

I've made this point before, but it needs to underscored. The "local share" business is a myth. No local electorate will be willing to impose a tax on itself to pay for a playpen for billionaires. The only way this deal gets done is if the state picks up whatever share the Wilfs aren't willing to provide. R. T. Rybak can use whatever flimflammery he'd like, but he has no more leverage to find imaginary local funding than Bennett and his bobos on the board have in Ramsey County.

If we're going to have a Vikings stadium, it's going to be up the legislature and to Mark Dayton. And if the cost is $700-750 million, which it probably will be no matter where they build the thing, it's going to be a tough sell. The good news? The NFL has decided that the Vikes can't move to L.A. this year. After that? Well....

5 comments:

First Ringer
said...

When Dayton says the Vikings need to use the Metrodome site, what exactly does he have in mind?

A complete teardown? Or..

A modest revision?

Due to the economics of this thing, we're probably looking at a modest revision - a few hundred million between the state and team. The Vikes may agree simply because a little of something is better than a whole lot of nothing - and because they assume this won't settle the matter. They'll never agree to a long-term lease, even in an upgraded Dome, believing that the State and public understand that (to the Vikes' mind), the only resolution to this is a Arden Hills-esque site (lots of development & parking). That will probably be another in a long list of mistakes Wilf has made with this franchise.